"Josh Spear and Aaron Dignan of Undercurrent are building the next great digital agency, showing the largest companies in the world how to speak with — not at — their audiences."

Josh Spear, Undercurrent

"John McArthur is combating extreme poverty with his nonprofit, Millennium Promise. Doubling food production in these countries is commonplace — to me, that's absolutely mind-blowing!"

John McArthur, Millennium Promise

"The founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, is one of the most incisive, thoughtful, and publicly minded people out there."

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

"Joichi Ito is building a global Singapore incubator for startups, is the leading angel investor in the Middle East, and helps run the largest guild on World of Warcraft."

Joichi Ito, Creative Commons

"Mohamed Nanabhay at Al Jazeera gets software, media, the overthrow of governments, international relations, and startups. He's a key person in the future of the Middle East."

Mohamed Nanabhay, Al Jazeera English

"As a social-media strategist at National Public Radio, Andy Carvin has used Twitter to become a fire hose of news and information on the events in the Middle East."

Andy Carvin, NPR

"Clay Shirky is one of the best big-picture thinkers I've ever met. He understands the impact of social media and the evolving business and practice of journalism — topics that are near to my heart."

Clay Shirky, author

"Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis takes the lessons of open source and rapid, iterated prototyping and applies them to designing hardware for the developing world. The work is both simple and surprising, a rare combination."

Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, Ground Lab

"Limor Fried is an amazing engineer who has started a fantastic series of open-source resources that everyone in my field has had a chance to use at some point."

Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries

"I love Nick Dragotta and Saul Griffith's comic series Howtoons. Saul's science and DIY–friendly writing with Nick's art are inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers."

Saul Griffith, Other Lab

"Tatjana Dzambazova works at Autodesk where she cares deeply about, and works tirelessly for, better design tools. She is a pioneer in making design more participatory, democratic, and social."

Tatjana Dzambazova, Autodesk

"I admire Google for making this world a better place by making uncensored information available to all of us, thus forever changing our everyday lives, work, and understanding of the world."

Jim Faris, Google

"I applaud the simple beauty of product, interaction, and identity design in Ammunition's work. The museum-quality aesthetic in every single millimeter of what they design is remarkable.

Brett Wickens, Ammunition

"Matt Jones at digital-design studio Berg understands what it is to be a designer in the new world. He not only helps clients uncover possibilities, but he's adept at creating the tools to make them a reality."

Matt Jones, Berg

"With the amount of data that our lives generate, I'm glad there are people like Hilary Mason creating products with not only the skill of an engineer but also the care of an artisan."

"Zach Klein is cofounder of Vimeo
and co-owner of College Humor, and he is now starting or investing in creative companies that all have great aesthetics and high quality. Everything he does is refreshing."

Zach Klein, entrepreneur

"I believe Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch, and Daren Rabinovitch at digital animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura will be as mesmerizing to children today as Jim Henson was to my generation."

Isaiah Saxon, Encyclopedia Pictura

"Marcin Jakubowski is a farmer/ technologist selflessly dedicated to a network of farmers and engineers developing open-source tools for building self-sufficient communities.

Marcin Jakubowski, Open Source Ecology

"A senior TED fellow, Cesar Harada is a groundbreaker on oil-spill cleanup using open source technology."